Sunday Punch

Sunday PUNCH was a B-film that played the lower half of double bills when released in 1942, pleasant enough fluff that was only passable as entertainment even then.

But fans of WILLIAM LUNDIGAN got to see him in a starring role for a change and pretty JEAN ROGERS got a chance to show that she was someone to watch even if her career never got into high gear. She's photographed with beautiful, glossy MGM close-ups, the kind usually reserved for their top stars, but none of the familiar material here is up to the standards of an A-film.

Not even with a supporting cast that includes GUY KIBBE, CONNIE GILCHRIST, LEO GORCEY, SAM LEVENE and, in an unusual character role as a Norwegian janitor who wants to become a fighter, DAN DAILEY (billed as Dan Dailey, Jr.), as a guy who has a "Sunday punch" as his ticket to a boxing career. The fight scenes are standard stuff and neither Lundigan nor Dailey looks as though they could go more than two rounds in an actual fight.

Summing up: A pleasant enough trifle, but nothing to get excited about.

The mystery is: Why on earth did I watch it to the end? It's really awful, especially considering the screenplay by a noted writer, good photography, a director who was to do some good things, and several engaging players.

Connie Gilchrist is extremely unbelievable as a Scandinavian landlady. And Dan Dailey, if anything, tops her as the "yanitor" of her building, Olaf. Jean Rogers, an intriguing actress with a mezzo voice, is Gilchrist's niece "Yudy." And with Yudy -- Judy, that is, of course -- comes trouble.

See the boxers are in training and aren't supposed to see women.

William Lundigan is one of the building's tenants. He is a medical school dropout whose boxing. With Dailey and Lundigan, moviegoers of the time got to see quite a bit of beefcake.

Nothing about the movie rings true. Many decent performers are wasted.

In Brooklyn, Ma Galestrum runs a boarding house for prize-fighters struggling for their shot. It is full of characters. Then Ma's niece Judy Galestrum (Jean Rogers) moves in. Ken Burke (William Lundigan) is a boxer who may truly be distracted by the new arrival. The janitor Ole Jensen shows up at the gym and throws a Sunday Punch busting up the punching bag.

For a boxing movie, they don't spend much time in the gym. It's actually thirty minutes before they pay it a visit. A couple of the guys stand out from the crowd. This has a second tier romantic pairing. It's not much of a rom-com. I'm more interested in the boxing with Ole Jensen. He's the real star of the show.

The photography in this movie is beautiful. That is the first thing you notice. Paul Vogel lights this in high contrast shadows, so much so that you think you're looking at a film noir as shot by Hurrell. The actors are all deep in character: even Guy Kibbee is restrained and excellent. But there are so many odd decisions here -- Dan Dailey equipped with a fake Norwegian accent, William Lundigan, as stiff as a washboard, Jean Rogers predatory *and* whiny, plus Rags Ragland and Leo Gorcey as comedy relief -- that is to say intended comic relief.

The issue is that this is an effort to do STAGE DOOR at a boxing gym, and someone -- probably the producer -- insisted on adding gloss to every shot. And whoever did the final screenplay seems to have been working from a novel from which he hated to cut any character.

Director Millar had a long and spottily distinguished career. His last effort was a TV Movie titled GOLDIE AND THE BOXER GO TO Hollywood in 1981. Sounds a lot like this one.

Aside from having a pretty impressive cast for a B-movie, there isn't a whole lot to distinguish "Sunday Punch" from the crowd. It's not a bad film but it's really not all that great a film either--plus the plot seems a bit clichéd.

The film is set at a rooming house for boxers. In other words, no women are allowed. Despite this, the landlady invites Judy (Jean Rogers) to stay there---and naturally this causes problems with some of the boxers. In particular, the handyman who becomes a boxer (Dan Dailey) and up and coming boxer, Ken (William Lundigan) are smitten with her. But, with an unscrupulous manager (J. Carrol Naish), the guys are manipulated and eventually the two friends are pushed into a match together. Who gets the girl and who goes on to the championship bout? See the film and see for yourself...or not.

While there's nothing terrible about the film, hearing Dan Dailey speaking with a Scandinavian accent was kind of funny. Overall, a slightly sub-par time-passer and nothing more.